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The Women’s Leadership Network creates meaningful opportunities that connect and empower women in law through mentorship, networking, programming, and philanthropy. The Network also seeks to create an inclusive community that strengthens the voices and leadership of women in the legal profession and to raise the awareness of issues facing women and society.

Sarah Jean Kelly joins Brooklyn Law School as the new Dean of Students on Feb. 4, bringing to our community nearly two decades of experience over a wide variety of positions within higher education administration.   Kelly has spent eight years in progressively responsible roles at two different law schools—Georgetown University Law Center and, more recently, St. John’s School of Law. At St. John’s, where she initially served as assistant dean for graduate studies, she became vice dean for administration—a role in which she was responsible for all student services and academic support, diversity and inclusion, faculty support, communications, budget, and operations—before ultimately serving as vice president for student success and retention strategy for St. John’s University.  Kelly earned her J.D. at the Georgetown University Law Center, and holds an M.Ed. from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College.   We spoke with Kelly about the joys and challenges of her lifelong work focused on the student experience, and what she is looking forward to in becoming a part of the Brooklyn Law community.  What do you consider to be the most important qualities for a dean of students?  Sarah Jean Kelly: To be accessible, approachable, solution-oriented, and student-centered in our work, and to ask what role we can play in meeting students’ needs and being their advocate.  You really have to love students to be in this role. Because you’re walking with students on their best days and their most challenging days, through family loss, illness, conduct issues, and much more. So, it’s critical that they know someone is always in their corner. For me, a big component of the job is hoping that students learn quickly how much I care for them and that the Law School is a place they can thrive and succeed.  What made Brooklyn Law seem like a great fit for you? And what plans do you have for your new role?   Brooklyn Law’s commitment to access and providing a strong legal education made it feel like a place I would feel alignment with, as that has been important to me over the course of my career. In getting to know the existing team and senior leadership through the interview process, it felt like an exciting place to join.   My plan when I get to Brooklyn is to get to know the people, the students, the faculty. I’m excited to hear from people about the challenges they see and how I can be of help in meeting those challenges.   My wife and I have an eight-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter, both of whom have grown up around a college campus and love students. We have always baked snacks and filled a wagon with them to pass out at exam time. So, my son wanted to know if, when we move to Brooklyn, we can get pizza and ice cream and share it with our new neighbors.  You are excited to be building a new on-campus student support team and hiring a new Director of Equal Opportunity and Title IX Coordinator. The coordinator will also be responsible for accommodations. How will that role serve students and amplify the efforts of the existing team?   Yes, BLS is in the final stages of hiring a Director of Equal Opportunity and Title IX Coordinator, who will also oversee accommodations for the Law School.  I’m really looking forward to having this position filled with someone who is working full-time for the Law School, and located on campus, as I know this is an area in which students are looking for more support.  This position will have responsibility for working with students throughout the accommodations process, as well as overseeing Title IX and EEO efforts on behalf of BLS.   This role will be an important addition to the student support team, which also includes Interim Arthur Pinto & Stephen Bohlen Associate Dean of Inclusion & Diversity Director of Student Life Dominique Fowler, who is located in the main building, and is the primary adviser to the Student Bar Association and our  student organizations; Director of Residence Life Alexis Grafakos, who works full-time from Feil Hall and oversees our residence life program, with oversight of our housing selection process, the sublet process, and most importantly, community building within Feil, and Director of Student Wellness Jennifer Lang, who is continuing to support students remotely on a part-time basis by assisting students with support for their well-being, while also working on systems and structures to further develop our wellness offerings.     Let’s talk about your career journey. After graduating from Wellesley, you began your career as an admissions counselor for your alma mater before getting your M.Ed. Then you joined Georgetown University as the assistant director of external relations for its Career Education Center, advising students and developing career programming. What drew you to a career in student-focused administration?  I’m someone who was the beneficiary of a transformative education as an undergraduate, being part of a community and an environment that encouraged me to thrive as a person, not just as a student. When I realized you could make a career out of helping students to have the same experience, to maximize their opportunities to grow and thrive as people, as students, and as professionals, it was enormously appealing to me.   I have been lucky to be able to do a great variety of things in education. Starting with my work in admissions, my focus has been on increasing access, on the student experience, on improving student outcomes, and on how we run an administration in a student-centered manner.   How did you decide to transition to working within the administration of law schools and to getting your J.D.?  I fell into the law school specialization, although I come from a family of lawyers. My dad was an attorney at a law firm and general counsel for a corporation, and I have aunts and uncles who are lawyers.   When I was at the University of Virginia, I decided to pursue a law degree, not necessarily to practice law but to apply that education more broadly to higher education administration. I was lucky to be able to work full time at Georgetown Law while a student there, and that really sparked my love for law school administration.  Your experience in law school was fairly unique. Tell us about that.  I had a different experience from a lot of my fellow law school students because I was also working full-time at the Law Center. I was Director of Marketing and Business Development for the Department of Academic Conferences and Continuing Legal Education. So, I had the opportunity to see how law schools operate from multiple perspectives, and in addition to learning the typical law school subjects, I also learned about legal education and how to run a law school. I saw how a law school’s business model functions, and how that impacts the student experience, and how important it was to find ways to make our work more effective to better facilitate the student learning and outcomes.  You have said that international education is a personal passion. How have you put that passion into your work?  I studied abroad as a student, and that really made clear to me how important international education is. After law school at Georgetown, I became the director of the school’s LL.M. Academic Services, where much of my work was aimed at the educational experience of our international LL.M. student population, and I supervised more than 350 LL.M. adjunct faculty, and I learned about how legal systems work in other parts of the world and was able to build relationships with other law schools internationally.   At St. John’s, I was responsible for recruiting and serving our LL.M. student population, the majority of whom were international students, as well as overseeing study abroad for the law school. I really enjoyed getting to know our incoming international students, learning about the law schools from which they were coming to us, and getting to understand their goals and objectives for their LL.M. year. Over the course of my time there, we were able to develop strong programs designed to enhance their experience, as well as improve their outcomes with respect to the bar exam and career placement. I’ve also had the opportunity to lead a number of study-abroad programs and teach courses in Comparative Legal Studies as an adjunct, and that has been tremendously fun!  At St. John’s School of Law, as you served simultaneously as interim vice dean for academic affairs and vice dean for administration until 2021, you led the school’s COVID response. Tell us about how you managed that challenging time.   Doing two jobs as one person is a challenge at any time. Layered with COVID, it was extremely difficult; there was so much that was unknown. The risks were significant, and it was impossible to know if we were making the right decisions that would serve students and faculty well. But the relationships with faculty, administration, and students are what enabled us to make a plan on how to move forward. It was a team effort.   What are some of the events and programming you instituted to strengthen the culture of community engagement at St. John’s?  There were many ways in which I got to partner with students and faculty, and that is the best part of the job. One of the programs we did was a brunch at the start of the academic year for LGBTQ students at the law school that my wife and I hosted. We wanted to give the students comfort and the ability to get a feeling of the place they were coming into and know that there was tremendous support available.   We also formed a dean’s advisory council, a group of students that met with the dean and me on a regular basis to workshop ideas and give us feedback on their experience. It was a natural opportunity for connection and for them to voice concerns. It was beneficial for all of us and made it possible for us to better serve the students.  Among your many accomplishments as vice president for student success and retention strategy for undergraduate students at St. John’s, you reimagined and restructured the first-year experience for students. In your view, what makes that first year smoother and more successful for students?  A big focus in my first year in that role was on getting a handle on how to make resources that were available to students known to them, how they could access and utilize these services. We transformed the former Freshman Center into the Center for Student Success, where career services, academic advising, and academic support—and a case manager, if needed—were offered to first-year students. Also, we did a lot of work in the past couple of years on wellness and strengthened the counseling and psychological center, student accessibility services, and the student health center, helping students to thrive by removing barriers.   There has always been an element of relationship building in your work. Do you consider this one of your greatest strengths as an administrator who works closely with students, faculty, and partners in the community and in other law schools?   To me, partnerships are critical to success and to having meaning in the work that I do. One of the things I take to heart is that I am a professional with expertise in my own areas, but everyone has expertise in their own area, and each student I serve does as well. Building relationships and understanding what is important to other people is essential in order to create a strategy to move forward. My experience and objectives are only part of the equation.   How have you observed the needs of students change over the years, and how has your work stepped up to meet those needs?  Working with different populations of students over time, it has become clear to me that their basic needs must be met—food security, health care, housing, money to meet the cost of course materials or a bar prep course in order for students to thrive. It wasn’t that these issues didn’t exist a decade ago, but they weren’t as top of mind for our profession. They are top of mind for me now in the work I’m doing. I’m always thinking, what are we doing to make sure that students are satiated when they go in for exams?   COVID has had an impact on the educational experiences of many of our students today. Many students in high school and early college, who have been studying remotely, haven’t learned how to build relationships with faculty, or sometimes even with each other. We need to put the systems and structures in place for them to forge those relationships. The impact of COVID will change over time, but populations of students will experience these effects for years.  

Hon. E. Leo Milonas ’60, who was known for speaking out on judicial independence as a longtime administrator of courts in New York State and New York City, died on Jan. 2 of heart failure. He was 87.   Honored as the Brooklyn Law School Alumnus of the Year in 1994, Milonos was a Manhattan native who graduated from George Washington High School in Washington Heights, where he grew up. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957 from City College in three years and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1960.  Initially, he worked in private practice in New York City, but he was appointed in 1972 as a Criminal Court Judge, and quickly elevated to roles of increasing responsibility in the city court system before ultimately being elected as a state Supreme Court Justice in 1978. Milonas was then appointed as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan in 1982, and in 1993, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye named him Chief Administrative Judge for the state of New York.   During his time as a jurist, he was well known for defending his fellow judges in public disputes, and for improving the judicial system, reports the New York Times in an obituary published today.   “Throughout his career on the bench — beginning with his appointment to the Criminal Court by Mayor John V. Lindsay in 1972 as New York City’s youngest judge, at 36, and ending when he retired from a state appeals court in 1998 — Justice Milonas worked to make the judicial system more efficient, transparent and representative,” the Times article stated.  As a court administrator for New York City and then New York State, he worked hard to ensure that judge appointments were merit-based and made upon the recommendations of qualified screening committees. For judges that are elected by vote, he pushed to have politicians select candidates that had been vetted.  While deputy chief administrative judge of New York City’s courts, Milonas famously sparred with former Mayor Ed Koch in 1981. Amid a rise in crime, the mayor blamed the courts for being too slow to enforce a new state gun law that aimed to keep unlicensed guns out of the hands of convicted felons.  As the Times reported, Milonas challenged that contention in a lengthy open letter to Koch, in which he asserted that the judiciary was only one component of the criminal justice system.  “The courts are not the police or prosecutors,” he told the mayor. “Judges do not arrest and indict people.”  Later in his career, while in the role of Chief Administrative Judge for the state, he was instrumental in upgrading court facilities and computer systems and tightening the rules of conduct for lawyers. He also established a State Supreme Court division with jurisdiction over commercial cases.  He returned to the Appellate Division in 1993 and retired as a judge in 1998, going back to private practice with a position at the firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Manhattan.   His involvement on bench matters continued. Since 2019, he headed the New York Commission on Judicial Nomination, which presents the governor with potential appointees to the state Court of Appeals, its highest court.   At Pillsbury Law, Milonas concentrated his practice on complex commercial litigation, appeals and alternative dispute resolution before retiring last year. The firm shared news of his death in a statement on its website.   “Over his 26 years as a member of the State judiciary, Judge Milonas had a monumental impact on the practice of law in New York, most notably overseeing the formation and implementation of the Commercial Division,” the statement said. “But for those of us who had the great fortune to work with him at Pillsbury, he was even more than a paragon of the judicial system. He was a warm, humble friend whose knowledge, experience and gravitas presented constant opportunities to grow and learn. Many of us became better lawyers because of him.”  While at Pillsbury, he was recognized by Best Lawyers for Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation (2007 – 2024) and Bet-the-Company Litigation (2007 – 2015).  He was also vocal on issues related to civil liberties and education.   While serving as the president of the New York City Bar Association from 2002 to 2004, Milonas warned against the threat to civil liberties posed by the nation’s efforts to combat terrorism, under which, he said, anyone could be arrested and detained without recourse, the Times reported. And in 2004, he was a member of a court-appointed panel that said an additional $5.6 billion must be spent on the city’s schoolchildren every year to provide the opportunity for a sound, basic education that they were guaranteed by the State Constitution. 

For the 10th year, the Law School served as host and sponsor of the Brooklyn Book Festival, a popular annual event that draws thousands of authors, booksellers, and readers from around the country to Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn. After last year’s fully virtual festival, booksellers returned to Cadman Plaza for a one-day event October 3, along with live programming featuring an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors, including Min Jin Lee and Joyce Carol Oates. Additionally, the festival featured free virtual programming during the week leading up to the festival. This year, the Law School hosted two panels: The Struggle to Get Rights Right with Professors Wilfred U. Codrington III and Susan Herman on the day of the festival, and an online book talk with author Matthew Clair on Sept. 29. At an outdoor panel discussion in the Law School courtyard, Herman moderated a discussion between Codrington and author Jamal Greene, the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. The three constitutional law professors talked about the struggle in American law to balance, respect, and protect individual rights within the framework of the U.S. Constitution. In Codrington’s new book, The People’s Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union (with John F. Kowal) (The New Press 2021), he examines the history and future of constitutional change in America through its 27 amendments. “When you look at this history… [it] is a history of movements pushing politicians and elite institutions to make our national charter more competent to govern us today,” said Codrington. “We [now] see some elements of things… we’ve seen in the past that have sparked these waves of constitutional change. And now we’re thinking, ‘What is that next generation going to push for?’ and ‘What will our Constitution look like if it’s… to govern us today in the 21st century?’” “We hear… people all over the country [claiming] they have rights,” said Herman, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law and past President of the American Civil Liberties Union. “‘I have a right not to be vaccinated,’ ‘I have a right to vote,’ ‘I have a right to have an abortion….’ [But] what really what is a right?” The virtual book talk put Professors Jocelyn Simonson and Alexis Hoag in conversation with Clair, assistant professor of sociology and (by courtesy) law at Stanford University. Clair’s recently published Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court (Princeton University Press, 2020) examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, denying justice to the poor and to working-class people of color. “The disadvantaged often have far greater knowledge of their legal rights… from prior experiences with the law that they’ve had throughout their lives,” said Clair. “They’re much more actively engaged in trying to fight their court cases, yet their lawyers, caught between the power and expectations of prosecutors and judges, coerce them to take plea deals, silence them in front of judges, and grow tired of defendants who, they feel, have imprecise knowledge of court norms. “But in the courts, the dynamics are such that you are disadvantaged by having greater knowledge of the law. [As] you seek to make demands and exercise your rights, relatively worse treatment arises from the unwritten rules, expectations, and structural constraints of a profoundly unjust legal system.” The festival events will be broadcast on C-SPAN November 14. Browse books by Law School faculty authors Watch the Matthew Clair book talk 

At a book talk held virtually on Oct. 23, Professor Frank Pasquale, an expert on the intersection between technology and the law, outlined key concepts in his new book, New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI (Harvard University Press, 2020). The talk was sponsored by the Law School’s Center for Health, Science, and Public Policy. Pasquale argues that artificial intelligence and robotics should complement, rather than replace, human labor in professions, and that governments and institutions are capable of securing that outcome. They can do this by maintaining or adjusting existing rules of tort, contract, reimbursement, licensure, and many other areas. He offers examples of doctors, nurses, teachers, home health aides, journalists, and others working with roboticists and computer scientists to build systems to assist them in their work without abandoning human labor and judgement. “[These] cooperative relationships prefigure the kind of technological advance that could bring better health care, education, and more to all of us, while maintaining meaningful work,” wrote Pasquale. “They also show how law and public policy can help us achieve peace and inclusive prosperity rather than a ‘race against the machines.’” Joining the discussion were Professor Adam Kolber, whose work focuses on the intersection of law and neuroscience, and Professor Gregg Macey, who studies the connections between environmental law and policy and the science that undergirds it. Both are affiliated with the Center for Health, Science, and Public Policy. “In writing a book like this, I think a lot about the future of work and how we can have a broader view of how we want to shape the world,” said Pasquale. “The glimmer of hope in the legal profession is that, at our best, we’re not just trying to predict the future, we’re trying to plan for better futures.” Pasquale has been sought after by the media to speak on the regulation of AI and algorithmically-driven technology. This fall, he authored essays published by the Brookings Institute and in the Guardian and was the subject of an in-depth interview with Commonweal. His work has also been featured in numerous outlets, including Bloomberg Businessweek (alongside fellow faculty member Professor K. Sabeel Rahman) and CBC Radio. He will appear on Australia’s Future Tense radio later this month. At this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival, Pasquale spoke on a panel with other authors to discuss the ways in which the development of algorithms and AI has changed everyone’s daily lives. The panel, moderated by Vice Dean Christina Mulligan, was covered by Spectrum News NY1. He has also given book talks for universities and conference around the world, in Italy, the U.K., Denmark, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Australia, as well as for the University of North Carolina and Chicago-Kent College of Law. Pasquale is a noted expert and scholar on the law of artificial intelligence, algorithms, and machine learning, focusing on how information is used across areas including health law, commerce, and tech. His previous book, The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press, 2015), has been recognized internationally as a landmark study on how “big data” affects our lives. He is also coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI (Oxford University Press, 2020). Pasquale presently chairs the Subcommittee on Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security, part of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, where he is serving a four-year term. Order Pasquale’s book here Read more at the Brookings Institute, the Guardian, Commonweal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and CBC Radio Watch Pasquale on Spectrum News NY1

Francis J. Aquila ’83, a preeminent leader in M&A and corporate governance law, has been elected Chairman of Brooklyn Law School’s Board of Trustees. Aquila, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell since 1992, has been a member of the Board since 2008, serving as Vice Chair since 2014. He follows Stuart Subotnick ’68, President and Chief Executive Officer of Metromedia Company, who has been Chairman for 16 years. Subotnick will remain on the Board as Chairman Emeritus. As a Board member and alumnus, Aquila has been deeply involved in efforts to advance the Law School. A generous donor to the Law School, he has been a strong advocate of alumni giving and engagement, participating in numerous programs, including Business Boot Camp. In 2011, he was honored as Alumnus of the Year in recognition of his many achievements and contributions to the Law School. “It has been tremendously rewarding to serve as Chairman of Brooklyn Law School’s Board of Trustees for 16 years, and I am proud of all that the Board has accomplished during this time,” said Subotnick. “Frank has been a good friend and an invaluable partner in guiding our great law school to national prominence. I am confident that the school will continue to thrive under his leadership of the Board.” “Stu Subotnick has been a great leader for our Board and our Law School over the last 16 years, so I know that I have very big shoes to fill,” Aquila said. “I am honored that the stewardship of this distinguished institution has been entrusted to me, and I am excited to continue working to move Brooklyn Law School’s mission forward. Stu has left the Law School in a very strong position to meet the challenges in the years ahead. Legal education is rapidly changing, and Brooklyn Law School is well positioned to be a leader in meeting those challenges. I look forward to working with Dean Cahill, the Board, our faculty, and our alumni to ensure that the Law School maximizes its full potential.”  Aquila has been widely recognized as one of the world’s leading mergers and acquisitions lawyers. In December 2018, the Financial Times described him as “one of the most influential and high-profile M&A and corporate lawyers in the U.S.” who has “played a role in many of the largest and most complex deals,” and The Wall Street Journal profiled him as one of the seven top dealmakers of the year. These recognitions highlight his broad multidisciplinary practice. During the course of his career he has been called upon by global leaders such as Amgen, Andeavor, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Cheniere Energy, Diageo, Diebold Nixdorf, International Airline Group, Kraft, Navistar International, and United Rentals to advise them and their boards of directors on M&A, proxy contests, activism, unsolicited bids, corporate governance, crisis management, and a range of matters affecting corporate policy and strategy. The breadth of Aquila’s practice has resulted in his being one of only a handful of lawyers who have been ranked by Chambers Global in Band 1 (their top tier), as an American Lawyer “Dealmaker of the Year,” as a recipient of the Atlas Award as “Global M&A Lawyer of the Year,” and as a three-time Law360 MVP. For his work in corporate governance, Aquila has been named several times by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) to its “Directorship 100” as one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance and inside the boardroom. Best Lawyers in America named him as its 2017 Corporate Governance Law “Lawyer of the Year.” In 2014, Global M&A Network recognized him as one of the top 50 lawyers in the world. At Sullivan & Cromwell, Aquila has held numerous leadership roles over the last several decades and currently serves on the firm’s Management Committee. In addition to his work at Sullivan & Cromwell and with the Law School, Aquila is a Trustee and former Board Chair of The NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education and currently serves on the boards of the American Associates of the National Theatre and Dress for Success Worldwide. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, and the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Aquila received his A.B. degree from Columbia University. “Frank Aquila represents everything a person can achieve with a Brooklyn Law degree,” said Michael T. Cahill, president, Joseph Crea ’47 dean, and professor of law. “He has made us proud and will surely help us prosper. I greatly look forward to working with him. Please join me in congratulating him and welcoming him to this new role.”

Professor William Araiza, whose sense of humor drew smiles from his colleagues and helped ease the nerves of incoming students at the 2023 Convocation, will take on the role of Vice Dean this academic year.  Stanley A. August Professor of Law William Araiza, a popular teacher and widely published scholar of administrative and constitutional law, is taking on the role of vice dean beginning this academic year, effective July 1.   The vice dean position is a vital dean’s suite role that requires lending an ear to myriad voices and keeping academic initiatives prioritized and running smoothly in a complex environment. Araiza, who has previously held the position both here and at his previous law school, Loyola Law School-Los Angeles, seems a natural for the role given his scholarly focus on governmental rules, structure, and the legal frameworks that affect people’s everyday lives. Conducting the work with quiet efficiency, he said, is pivotal.     “The vice dean’s core job is to make sure that everything runs the way it should,” Araiza said. “If they're doing their job, the vice dean ought to be invisible. People shouldn't see all the paddling that's going on under the surface. All they should see is the boat moving across the water without any seeming problems or disruptions.”  The prospect of smooth sailing is off to a good start, thanks to work of President and Joseph Crea Dean David D. Meyer and Araiza’s predecessor in the role, Vice Dean and Centennial Professor of Law Miriam Baer. Araiza saluted their successful efforts to elevate the school’s bar examination passage rates (last year’s scores were up 9 points, the highest in a decade, through a focus on bar preparation). He also touts their leadership in programming to prepare students for the NextGen Bar Exam, which New York State launches in 2028.   “Miriam, in conjunction with some faculty members who have been working on this issue, has been able to get us on a path toward being able to respond to that new bar exam, helping our students succeed on the new exam,” Araiza said. “That work has to continue.”  Another focus area involves maintaining a strong faculty, particularly as more senior faculty are expected to retire in the next several years. This year, the school is bringing in four new professors, “exciting new hires,” Araiza says, who will be augmenting a faculty that is renowned for its scholarly impact. That level of hiring will carry on.   “Similar to other law schools, we are under a continual need to replenish our ranks, and so making sure that we select a really terrific, excellent core of teachers and scholars is critical to the law school’s ability to continue to thrive in the future,” Araiza said. “Working with our appointments committee is going to be another priority for me, to make sure that we actually can restaff in ways that we need.”  Yet a third priority is one that has already been impacting the field of law and legal education, and that is artificial intelligence (AI). Knowing that students will most likely use AI after starting their legal careers, faculty members must weigh how they may deploy it now. It is a decision that impacts the expectations of their performance on assigned work, and even the ratio of take-home exams, for which students may be using AI, versus in-class exams.   “It's not like the world of 50 years ago or even the world of five years ago. This is really going to be a different world in terms of practice and figuring out how we prepare our students to be effective lawyers in a world that's going to be marked by AI,” Araiza said. “It is  going to be a long-term challenge, but one that's going to hit us very quickly.”  An additional priority for the role is keeping on top of the regulatory environment that the Law School operates in. Because it is an independent school, Brooklyn Law School is not as reliant on federal funding as a big research university that requires National Institutes of Health grants to conduct its scholarship might be. But that does not mean the school is immune from the financial cuts and scrutiny that its peers in academia face. Federal financial aid for students is a concern.   “The regulatory environment facing law schools is undergoing massive changes, and we're going to need to respond to those changes and whatever comes out of the regulatory apparatus, out of the federal government, and, to a lesser degree, the state government, as they change their understandings of how they should be interacting with legal education,” Araiza said. “Dean Meyer very much has his finger on the pulse of this. He and the other law school deans are monitoring what's going on in Washington very carefully.”   To perform his new role, Araiza will have to pause on the upper-level classes he normally teaches in First Amendment Law and Administrative Law, but he will still teach Constitutional Law, a first-year class in which students, in reviews, note Araiza’s patient teaching style and  deep knowledge of the subject matter.    “Our 1L students, as they are integrating into the law school, need to get to know the Vice Dean, and what better way to do that than in a classroom setting?” Araiza asked. “I really, truly believe that someone in this role ought to teach.” 

A student meets with a recruiter at the Meet the Firms event in March 2025.  The landscape of Big Law recruiting is shifting rapidly, and first-year law students are feeling the effects.  In what many in the legal field describe as an “arms race” to secure top talent sooner and sooner, large law firms are now beginning outreach to first-year students before they even complete their first semester or receive a single grade.  To help students navigate this new reality, Brooklyn Law School’s Career Development Center will host its third annual “Meet the Firms” event on Tuesday, Nov. 18, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Forchelli Center. This event typically attracts up to 300 first-year students and will include attorneys from 44 major law firms—the highest level of employer participation since the event began—for an evening of conversation and connection.  “The recruiting timeline continues to move earlier each year, which can make the first semester of law school even more stressful for students,” said Heather Spielmaker, Associate Dean of Career Development. “Our goal is to help students manage that pressure by providing structure, guidance, and early access to employers in a way that supports—not distracts from—their academic success.”  While early recruiting can make an already demanding semester feel even more intense, Spielmaker is hopeful that it may also offer an advantage: students could meet with and impress representatives from major firms before grades become a primary screening factor.  Now in its third year, Meet the Firms has quickly become one of Brooklyn Law’s most popular and impactful networking events. The program—previously held in March—has been moved to November to reflect the significantly earlier recruiting timelines that many large firms have now adopted.  This year’s Meet the Firms features a mix of long-standing employer partners, including Ropes & Gray, Fried Frank, Davis Polk, Latham & Watkins, and Clifford Chance, along with first-time participants such as Hodgson Russ, Milbank, Chapman & Cutler, and Kirkland & Ellis.  “This is our strongest employer turnout yet,” said Val Kapitula, Director of Recruitment and Employer Engagement. “The enthusiasm from firms to connect with Brooklyn Law students continues to grow. Employers consistently tell us how impressed they are by the professionalism and preparation of our 1Ls.”  Students will receive a full list of attending employers and firm representatives prior to the event, allowing them to plan conversations and target their outreach strategically.  In advance of Meet the Firms, the Career Development Center will host an informational webinar on Friday, Nov. 7, at 1 p.m.  Students are invited to join the Career Development team for a conversation about the Big Law application process. The session, led by Val Kapitula and Keith Dominguez, senior associate director of career and professional development, will cover how and when to research firms, how to prepare your materials, and tips for success—with time left over for a Q&A.  Big Law firms—typically the largest and most prestigious in the profession—offer some of the highest starting salaries in the legal industry and handle high-stakes corporate work for global clients. They are also known for their demanding work environments, making early exposure and thoughtful exploration essential for students who want to understand what this path entails.  Event Details Friday, Nov. 7 – Big Law Webinar 1:00 p.m. | Virtual  Tuesday, Nov. 18 – Meet the Firms 6:00–7:30 p.m. | Forchelli Center (205 State St.) Open to all 1L students – no registration required  For questions, contact Val Kapitula, Director of Recruitment and Employer Engagement, at val.kapitula@brooklaw.edu or 718-780-0327.  Brooklyn Law School thanks the participating firms: Akin; Alston & Bird; Arnold & Porter; Blank Rome; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Cahill Gordon & Reindel; Chapman and Cutler LLP; Clifford Chance US LLP; Clyde & Co; Cozen O'Connor; Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP; Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP; Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath; Freshfields; Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Gibson Dunn; Goodwin; Hodgson Russ; Hunton; Katten Muchin Rosenman; Kelley Drye & Warren LLP; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Lowenstein Sandler LLP; Mayer Brown LLP; Milbank LLP; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP; Paul, Weiss; Proskauer Rose; Ropes & Gray LLP; Seward & Kissel; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Thompson Coburn LLP; Thompson Hine LLP; Troutman Pepper Locke; Vedder Price; Venable LLP; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; White & Case LLP; Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP; Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; and Winston & Strawn LLP.